At Least 14 People Killed in Helicopter Crash Near Kyiv, Including Ukrainian Cabinet Minister

Anna Lazarus Caplan
·2 min read
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At Least 14 People Killed in Helicopter Crash Near Kyiv, Including Ukrainian Cabinet Minister
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Senior Ukrainian officials, including the country's interior minister, were among at least 14 people killed when a helicopter crashed in heavy fog Wednesday morning in a suburb of Kyiv.

Ukraine's State Emergency Service confirmed the fatalities included a child, Interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi and two other ministry officials, Deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych, The New York Times reported.

Authorities in Kyiv are now investigating the crash, which occurred when the helicopter hit a 14-story residential building and nearby kindergarten. There are no initial reports that the Super Puma helicopter — which the Associated Press reported was supplied by France — was shot down.

It was en route to one of the country's "hot spots," The New York Times reported, when it crashed in Brovary, just east of the capital.

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Firemen roll up hoses in front of debris as emergency service workers respond at the site of a helicopter crash on January 18, 2023 in Brovary, Ukraine. Eighteen people have been killed, including Ukraine's interior affairs minister Denys Monastyrsky along with eight other helicopter passengers, after they crashed near a nursery in a Kyiv suburb
Firemen roll up hoses in front of debris as emergency service workers respond at the site of a helicopter crash on January 18, 2023 in Brovary, Ukraine. Eighteen people have been killed, including Ukraine's interior affairs minister Denys Monastyrsky along with eight other helicopter passengers, after they crashed near a nursery in a Kyiv suburb

Ed Ram/Getty

President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a statement following the crash, which happened at school drop-off time — approximately 8:20 a.m. — calling it a "terrible tragedy."

"The pain is unspeakable," he said on his Telegram channel, and added it was a "black morning."

RELATED: At Least 19 Killed by Russian Missile Strike on Residential Block Near Odesa, Ukraine

Zelensky said that he has asked local authorities "to find out all the circumstances of what happened."

Firemen roll up hoses in front of debris as emergency service workers respond at the site of a helicopter crash on January 18, 2023 in Brovary, Ukraine. Eighteen people have been killed, including Ukraine's interior affairs minister Denys Monastyrsky along with eight other helicopter passengers, after they crashed near a nursery in a Kyiv suburb.
Firemen roll up hoses in front of debris as emergency service workers respond at the site of a helicopter crash on January 18, 2023 in Brovary, Ukraine. Eighteen people have been killed, including Ukraine's interior affairs minister Denys Monastyrsky along with eight other helicopter passengers, after they crashed near a nursery in a Kyiv suburb.

Ed Ram/Getty

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The accident comes just days after 45 people died in a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the southern city of Dnipro. The Associated Press reported that the fatalities included six children, while 79 people were injured. The attack on civilians took place just over one month short of the first-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.